


And at every drifting cloud that went

by Babyoonie



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Author regrets nothing, Completed, Fluff, Humour, Inspired By Tumblr, Overuse of italics, POV Outsider, Tags May Be Updated, Unbeta'd, We Die Like Men, also, and hyphens probably, author regrets everything, completed work, don't question why ed is a professor, don't worry I'm not shipping ed with my oc or anything, ed is a professor, he's still like 15, little to no dialogue, or he had enough of roy's shit and retired very fuckin early, pretend it's a mission?, roy wrote a book, writing may have both british and american aspects, written in under an hour probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:22:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22188547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Babyoonie/pseuds/Babyoonie
Summary: Carrie wasn't even entirely sure why she signed up for this class. Because, let's be real - Alchemy isn't really something she's interested in too greatly, or can even think of mastering. Additionally there is a slight dislike of Alchemists with how they're currently mostly used by the military; she had even heard rumors of a kid being one of their more talented ones. She shudders thinking about it: having to give up your youth or perhaps even your childhood to the military, for god knows what reasons.or: The Fullmetal Alchemist decides to teach a class.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 121





	And at every drifting cloud that went

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" by Oscar Wilde, 1898. Full paragraph is as follows:
> 
> "I never saw a man who looked  
> With such a wistful eye  
> Upon the little tent of blue  
> Which prisoners call the sky,  
> And every drifting cloud that went  
> With sails of silver by."

Carrie wasn't even entirely sure why she signed up for this class. Because, let's be real - Alchemy isn't really something she's interested in too greatly, or can even think of mastering. Additionally there is a slight dislike of Alchemists with how they're currently mostly used by the military; she had even heard rumors of a kid being one of their more talented ones. She shudders thinking about it: having to give up your youth or perhaps even your childhood to the military, for god knows what reasons.

Upon entering the class room she discovers, admittedly fairly predictably, that it is fairly empty. She can see both boys and girls of fairly varying ages sitting around in scattered spots here and there, the row at the very back of the classroom entirely taken up by some boys chattering animatedly, none of them really remarkable and occupied with their own endeavors. She sees a fairly odd-looking blonde with - her? his? - face hidden behind a book, hair made in a messy braid and wearing some sort of red cloak sitting in front, uncaring of anyone in their vicinity. She decides to chance it and sits close to them - not close enough to be deemed 'next to each other' or to excuse an attempt of talking to them, but close enough to read the writing on the cover of the book- or to attempt to anyway, since it's written in some language Carrie had never seen before. It's very curly but seems to have no circles at the same time, and she can't tell where a word ends and a new one begins. The author is written in Amestrian though: a certain R. Mustang. The name sounds vaguely familiar, but she doesn't know where she's heard it before.

At that moment, the person - boy, she decides - snorts quietly while turning a page. The action gives her the opportunity of seeing his face a little clearer, seeing deep golden eyes and fair skin, as well as noticing his gloves for the first time. They are an impeccable white, though somehow seem hurriedly made despite obviously being new. She also sees something flash beneath the sleeve of the boy's right sleeve, but assumes it's a sort of metallic bracelet. Just then the bell signalising the beginning of the class rings and she hurries to unpack a notebook and some pencils, wanting to see if the class will maybe end up being enjoyable in the end. She hears several others do the same and only at that moment realizes that the professor hadn't arrived yet.

She looks around in the room, seeing the boy next to her once again suppress a chuckle - she starts questioning whether sitting next to him had been a good idea - and the other students seem just as confused. If she recalls correctly, the professor was supposed to be a very young man called E. Elric, a new hire. She had heard other students talk about him, saying his way of teaching was very interesting, but she hadn't caught anything about his appearance or actual age, or any possible reason for as to why he wouldn't show up for the first class he had with this certain group of people. 

The boys in the back start to whisper among each other. The boy next to her keeps reading. A few girls a row behind her continue talking again. The clock ticks a minute forward.

Finally a boy at the back asks loudly: "If the prof doesn't show up, we can leave, right?" His friends laugh and a different guy from a few rows up answers. "Let's wait for at least... Ten or fifteen minutes. Maybe he just overslept or something." The boys agree reluctantly, though Carrie has the impression that they both don't really have anything better to do and also don't mind waiting very much, so the students remain in the room. 

As more time passes the chatter gets increasingly louder, even the boy who had insisted on waiting joining in with some girls and boys sitting close to him. Carrie simply continues sitting and waiting, thinking about anything that comes to mind, slightly regretting not trying harder to rope at least one of her friends into the class with her.

Just a moment before the professor is officially almost twenty minutes late the blond boy moves so abruptly she barely registers it, throwing his books at the writing board in front. _So that's what he was sitting so far in front for_ somehow filters through her shock while the whole classroom is silent enough you could have heard a pin drop. 

The boy rises, jumps over the table with surprising elegance, takes a piece of chalk from the board and starts writing something that is a hellish combination of nearly unintelligible and surprisingly neat: _Edward Elric_. The class watches in astonishment while Carrie can't seem to grasp the situation.

He turns around, claps his hands against each other to get rid of the dust and grins at them.

"My name is Edward Elric, I am your professor. So let's start talking about my favourite subject: myself." Carrie can almost _hear_ her classmates blink as the words sink in.

 _"You're_ the professor?!" 

Said Edward Elric - she should probably call him Professor Elric but _God_ , he looks so _young_ \- grins at the one asking the question. "I am! Wanna guess what else I am?" He looks at the students in anticipation, as if actually waiting for or wanting an answer, and Carrie almost nods simply so that he'd continue when he already does so anyway: "I'm the Fullmetal Alchemist!"

There are a few moments of silence. Then, the boys from the back start laughing. _"You?"_ , one shouts, pointedly looking the boy up and down. " A _State Alchemist_?"

For a reason she can't quite grasp, she feels as if the boy in question had done a grave mistake by questioning Elric's authority. The easy grin slipped into something just slightly different but all the more dangerous, and when he claps again she gets a sense of foreboding. Elric drops to the ground into a crouch and places his hands on the floor, which upon contact suddenly erupts into blue sparkles - _lightning_ \- a giant spike forming and rushing forward, stopping just fractions of a centimetre in front of the boy's throat. Elric's grin widens when the boy gulps in astonishment and fear. "Had anything to say, did you?", he asks him. Carrie feels like he's having a little too much fun threatening students.

Elric claps again and the spike disappears. He brushes the dust off again. He walks back towards the front, stop in front of the desk and hops on top of it with practiced ease. He radiates energy and authority no one his age should be able to have, putting his elbows on his knees and leaning his head on his hands. Carrie sees a chain she had believed being there for decorative purposes ending in his pants, a circular weight in the pocket shifting with any movement he made.

"So, any questions?"

The sunlight glints off the thing underneath his sleeve.


End file.
